The Gladius Brigade
by Edward Squidman
Summary: Crossover with an original work for my buddy Berry. The Inkling Candie has a burning 'what if' question. Lucky for her the human Wolfram has a special knack for answering 'what if' questions. Wolfram has a question of his own, and Candie can help him with his, too. IMPORTANT: If you haven't read Allan Squidmans works "We're History" and "Timestep", this story won't make much sense.
1. Poison Seed

On the bus ride back to the hotel where the Kidman brothers were staying, both of them had suddenly lost the ability to shut up. Passengers were eyeing them with looks of annoyance but neither brother noticed: There was too much that needed saying before the excitement passed.

"Callie hugged me!" Edward exclaimed. "She hugged me!"

"Marie's real! The Squid Sisters are real! Inklings! Octolings! Inkopolis! It's all real!" Allan rambled as he held his Amiibo figurine in his hands like a tiny beloved.

Luckily for the seemingly delirious pair of Kidman twins their fellow passengers did not understand English, or they would be seen as completely insane and not merely a mildly rowdy irritation. They spoke simultaneously in near-hysterical semi-rants all the way back to the hotel, up the elevator and into the room where they were staying. As they sat down on their beds they finally quieted down and sighed in unison. There was a moment's silent reflection and they both knew they were thinking the same thing.

"We have to see them again."

Candie the inkling was on top of her game. Being the daughter of Callie of the Squid Sisters, it was only natural that she and her Sloshing Machine dominated Turf Wars. This particular battle was going amazingly well as she had been matched up with her second cousins, the twins Madie and Mo.

She was inking turf by the bucket-load, ink swirling out of her weapon as she covered up slabs of Bluefin Depot's floor with her yellow hue. Usually her colour of choice was the same shade of Magenta her mother typically sported (although this colour made up the majority of her tentacle-hair with black at the tips; the inverse of what was the case with her pop star mother), but the colour of the team she was part of for that battle was yellow, therefore so was her ink. Candie suddenly received a distress call from her cousin. She checked her map and saw that Mo was outnumbered in a partially enclosed space.

Candie landed on the scene just in time to see three different Splattershots closing in on Mo, who was stuck in enemy ink. Without thinking twice she sloshed out an escape route for the inkling boy, and activated her bomb rush just as the three assailants came close enough. The attackers were not unprepared, however, and one of them pulled out a Bubbler which all of them shared. The barrage of bombs pushed them away, but they soon began to push back. Candie thought all was lost as her Splat Bombs ran out, but in the next moment Madie charged in and unleashed her Inkzooka. With a few towering whirlwinds of ink, she managed to push the trio into the water, and as the last ten seconds of the match began to tick away, the battle seemed all but in the bag.

But it wasn't. There was one more Inkling standing on the Bad Guys' team and she had just activated her Inkstrike. She was too far away for the Mini Splatling, the Sloshing Machine or even the Grim Range Blaster to reach, and with walls and water nearly surrounding them there was nowhere for the Good Guys to run. That's when Candie realised that Mo had already fired up his Killer Wail, and the Inkstriker was snuffed out before she could even launch her attack.

Naturally, there had been a fourth teammate on Candie's team, but he had gone limp with awe just a few seconds into the battle.

"I thought I was a goner for sure!" Mo recollected over a milkshake, lime green like his ink had reverted back to. "I never lose when I'm on a team with you, Cuz'!"

"I wouldn't have been much help if ol' Trigger Happy over here didn't come charging in with her Inkzooka! Did you see those guys' faces?!" Candie was always in a cheery mood when she hung out with her cousins.

"But we would all have been splatted if Mo hadn't been around with his Wail! Not many people can pick their moments quite as well!" Madie was fidgeting with the silver tips of her green tentacles.

"And that would have left our victory in the hands of Noodle back there!" Candie chimed in and the three of them had a chuckle. Candie signalled the waiter to bring their cheque.

"One more Turf war?" Mo suggested.

"Nah, I'd better go see what my mom is up to…"

Candie arrived home to find her mother, half asleep, pouring frosted kelp cereal into the toaster at 1 o'clock in the afternoon. Just as Callie was about to add the milk, Candie gently took the carton from her and guided her by the shoulders to the coffee machine. The past few days had been rough: If it wasn't a Squidbeak Splatoon emergency it was an Inkopolis News shoot that wore on past schedule, and amid it all Callie still had to be a mother with no help at all from Candie's long gone good-for-nothing father.

Candie hated seeing her mother like this, and felt largely responsible every time she did. At the studio Candie would often overhear her mother and cousin Marie reminisce about the old days in-between takes, and from the stories Candie would get the idea that her mother was a mere shadow of her former self.

Thousands of people cheered at the top of their lungs, a sea of glow sticks undulating and rippling overhead.

"Thank you! Thank you so much!" Marie said blushing into her mic.

"We love you all!" Callie shouted, her arms waving about so wildly that she couldn't help but jump around after them.

"Stay fresh!" the pop stars chorused before walking off, the crowd of humans still cheering.

The next moment everything went dark and silent and a long white arrow curled into a loop appeared to hang above the stage.

In the darkness of her bedroom Candie sighed, touched the looped arrow on the screen in front of her and watched the concert again.

"She was so happy," the gloomy young Inkling whispered to herself. "The girl on that stage is not the woman who raised me."

The next moment a poisonous seed sprouted in Candie's heart, and the more she nurtured it the deeper it took root. Soon it felt like the very ink that coursed through her body stung her mind and she needed to get something painful off her chest.

Candie took a deep breath. "Mom? Can I talk to you? I know it must have been hard. You know? Raising me without a dad. I mean yeah, Aunt Marie and Bessie have been there to help, but they have their own kids too, and their dads are still around. Be honest: Would you have been better off if I was never born?"

Callie's plush-squid likeness stared back from Candie's embrace and didn't answer. She sighed and looked at her feet as her legs dangled down the side of the bed. Then she gathered up her courage, let herself down to the floor, and left via her bedroom doorway.

Candie slid down the secret trash can entrance behind the dumpster in the alleyway most people walk by without a second glance. She was met by a puzzled Dr Akkoro, already dressed for bed.

"What in the name of the great oceans are you doing up at this hour, child?"

"I was…" Candie swallowed "… wondering if you would let me borrow the time machine?" she asked

"What's this for?" It would have been irresponsible of Callum Akkoro Sr. not to ask

"I wanted to take Mo and Madie to watch one of the Squid Sisters concerts from back in the human era. Get a feel for what our mothers were like back in their prime." came Candie's response

"Well, I see no harm in that." The carefree Octoling scientist agreed. "Let me show you the ropes."

After explaining to Candie how the thinking cap enables the pilot to operate the time machine, Dr Akkoro moved on to newer additions: "I've managed to combine some technology from the thinking cap and the nanomics to come up with these new contraptions: Voila!" The scientist produced a perspex box containing what looked like three little dots, and lifted one out on his finger. "I call this a nanotrans. You stick it behind your ear and any conversation you hear from the locals will be instantly translated to Inklish in your head. Inversely, whenever you form sentences in your head, the translations for the words will be sent to your brain in the last language you heard, and you'll be able to converse with the locals. I have also fashioned some human disguises in various sizes, and I'll load a few into the newly installed wardrobe for you first thing in the morning. Last but not least, you'll be happy to know that I have installed several nozzles near the ceiling of the time machine that spray a special saline ink mist of my own invention into the chamber that will protect your bodies from the side effects of the antimatter conversion (I really wish I'd installed that before I lent the machine to my past self…)."

As Candie walked home, she found herself astounded as usual by Doctor Akkoro's eccentric politeness and eagerness to apply science. There was only one more obstacle to clear.

"Mo-omm… Mommy, dearest…" Candie said in a voice so sweet you'd think it's where she got her name.

"What is it, sweetheart?" her mother asked equally lovingly.

"Do you mind if I go back in time tomorrow night to go watch one of your pre-Mollusc era concerts?" Candie asked. "We did really well in the Turf Wars today so I'm sure I can afford a day off."

"You're not going alone, are you?" Callie asked as any mother would.

"Of course not," Candie said earnestly. "I'm taking Mo and Madie with me." She turned to Marie. "If that's all right with you of course, Aunt Marie."

Marie was technically Candie's second cousin once removed, but since Callie and Marie were as close as sisters it stands to reason she was more like an aunt to Candie if not a second mother. 'Aunt Marie' was also just easier to say.

"If Callie's fine with it, so am I." Marie answered.

There was a brief pause in the conversation as Candie looked at her mother expectantly. "All right." She said finally.

"Thanks mom." Candie said and turned to go to her room. She stopped in the doorway.

"One more thing," she said, turning back to her mother and "aunt", "Please don't tell Madie and Mo. It's a surprise, okay?"

And what a surprise it would have been if Madie had not eavesdropped just outside the window.

The streets of Inkopolis were deserted the following night and Candie set up Doctor Akkoro's time machine in the Plaza. She quietly stepped inside, put the Thinking Cap on her head and entered the date her parents met into the console. She swallowed down the lump in her throat. She knew that once the time machine started up there would be no turning back. Her hand slowly inched toward the button that engaged the Matter Converter and began to quiver as she closed her eyes, mentally going through the process of what she was about to do.

"What do you think you're doing?"

Madie and Mo had been silently trailing behind her and snuck onto the time machine without her knowing. Candie jumped at the sudden sound of Madie's voice and spun around with a start.

"You were going without us!" Mo said indignantly.

"You guys can't be here!" Candie said urgently. "You have to go home right now!"

"Wait a minute." Something caught Madie's eye. "That's not a concert date. That's in the Mollusc Era" she said, looking down at the text in the machine's console.

"That's the day your parents met. What were you going to do?" Mo asked with some indignance still audible in his voice.

"Nothing!" Candie said guiltily.

A look of shock spread across Madie's face. "You were going to keep them from meeting, weren't you?"

Mo gasped.

"No!" Candie said without convincing anyone, least of all herself.

Mo's expression changed to concern. "Cands, whatever you think is-" he began genuinely.

"The pep talk will have to wait!" Madie interrupted. "We need to turn this thing off!" she said as she reached for the controls.

"Don't touch that!" Candie cried out and grabbed her arm. Madie's hand brushed against some buttons as she tried to wrestle out of Candie's grip.

"Let me go!" Madie struggled and the two inkling girls inadvertently pressed more buttons as they wrenched for control over the time machine.

"Hey! Careful!" Mo cautioned as he grabbed at the confusion and tried to pull his sister out of it. Someone's arm slipped out of the hand that was gripping it and all three inklings fell back with Candie accidentally hitting the matter converter button in the process. The time machine hummed to life and the inklings froze in fear before vanishing from sight.


	2. The Deal

Once upon a time, two brothers discovered a corporation was involved in shady deals and blew the whistle. On the morning of the court case, Justice Sinclair, who was to preside over it, chose to have a rice cake for breakfast. He beat the traffic and arrived at the courthouse an hour early. Being an environmentally conscious man, he ruled that the mastermind behind the operation carry out his sentence in a special high-security facility. There Jack met professor Tech, and the two of them founded Hazard Inc., swearing vengeance on the twins who had put Jack away. Over the course of their battles, Allan and Edward Kidman gained their superpowers and met Victoria Honeywell and Zoë Wright, with whom they had children with superpowers of their own.

But once upon another time, Judge Sinclair decided to cook a full breakfast with crispy bacon and two hard-boiled eggs. As a result he left home twenty minutes later and was caught in a pile-up on the road he takes to court. His case was handed instead to Judge Stone. Slightly more focused on human development, a part of him actually sympathized with Jack's ideals. Nonetheless, Stone let the law run its course and sentenced Jack instead to a regular prison. There was no Hazard Inc., and both Jack's villainy and the Kidmans' heroism ended on that day.

As soon as the stasis lifted and Candie regained control of herself, she ran outside in a panic. The streets of present-ish day Tokyo were busy, and none of the onlookers gave the fourteen-year-old girl a second look, or they would have noticed she had squid tentacles for hair. Candie rapidly turned her head left and right, then left again, as though trying to make sense of her surroundings, before crying out and sitting down hard on the sidewalk, resting her elbows on her knees (or what passes for elbows and knees considering she had no bones) and covering her eyes with the palms of her hands. Candie let out a groan but before she could finish, the tyre from a passing car struck a puddle and soaked her. There wasn't enough water to harm her inkling constitution but it was still unpleasant. She was joined by Madie who quickly towelled her off with a jacket, and handed her the rest of her human disguise and her translator. The two wrestled with their respective thoughts in silence for a few moments, before Madie spoke:

"I can't believe you'd do something so… so selfish!"

The word shocked Candie. "Selfish? How is that selfish?"

"Leaving the people who care about you behind, just because you can't cope with the way things are… that's selfish." Madie's reply came.

"This isn't about me. I want to do this for my mom. She's the one who's not coping." Candie said, and added "… and if I erase myself from history, no one needs to deal with my being gone because I never existed in the first place."

"It's just… it's just so…" Madie couldn't find the words and was close to tears.

"Pointless, that's what it is." Mo had joined them, also in his disguise. The three inklings were indistinguishable from humans. The Inkling boy continued matter-of-factly: "Don't you remember the stories about how our moms went back in time and wound up in the time of the Great Turf War? Aunt Bessie didn't change history, she just ended up writing it the way it already was. And those scrolls Mom and Aunt Callie signed…"

"We get the point and you're not helping!" Candie snapped and made another groaning sound in her throat as she threw her hands up.

Suddenly there was a voice. Despite being inhumanly soft and gentle, it was overwhelmingly clear over the bustle of people in the streets. It was a young girl's voice and it said only "Inklings."

Madie instinctively looked up, as though expecting to find something celestial floating overhead.

"Over here!" This time it was a boy's voice, raised so as to be heard and coming from behind them.

The three squids turned around, and standing behind them were two children, both roughly fifteen years of age. The boy had medium length reddish-brown hair and wore oval spectacles. The girl had seemingly milk white hair, skin as fair as the palest of inklings, and a face so beautiful that if you were to reach out you'd half-expect your hand to pass right through her. Her apparently unpigmented silver-blue eyes seemed to at the same time be focused on atomic level and see everything in front of her for miles ahead.

"Sorry if we frightened you!" The boy spoke again as he straightened his glasses in front of his green-brown eyes. My name is Wolfram Kidman and this is my cousin Clarity. We're looking for our respective fathers and I believe you three inklings are a key piece of the puzzle!"

"But how did you see through our disguises?" A baffled Mo managed later in a coffee shop

"We have gifts…" The celestial looking human girl began. "Mine is the ability to see other people's gifts. In your case, your superbly developed ink defence. This could only have meant that under those wigs and face-pieces, the three of you are inklings."

"How were you not surprised that we exist?" Madie asked. "Aren't humans supposed to think we're fictional?"

"Our dads told stories of meeting three of your kind," Wolfram replied, "And we had always known they were true, even though no-one else believed them."

"What are you three doing here?" Clarity inquired.

"Would you care to answer that Candie?" Madie turned to her cousin.

Candie had been silent all the way from the sidewalk, and was sitting with her back turned towards the table but now she spoke up: "I wanted to change the past, okay?!" She ranted "I wanted to stop my parents from meeting so I wouldn't be born."

"You can't change the past," Wolfram said knowingly, "but you can change the future."

Candie turned her head so that the company could see the side of her face. "If I'd wanted a fortune cookie, I would have ordered Chow Mein!"

"I'm not being philosophical," Wolfram persisted, "this is truer than you realise! Ambivalence is one of the most powerful forces in the universe! If someone is truly of two minds about their next action, and their hands aren't being forced, their minds cleave the very cosmos into two separate timelines. Even the most seemingly insignificant choices can end up having immense effects on the course the future takes. I know this, because I've seen these effects for myself. There are countless parallel realities that make up this universe, and my gift is to jump between them. And I'm convinced there are others, too. Others that are so far removed from this cluster of realities that I can't get to them. Where the splitting of timelines works differently. But I'm wandering off topic.

I like to check how my other selves and their loved ones on other timelines are doing, but I'm having trouble finding us on one of them. The trail died here in Tokyo, so I've jumped back here to my original reality to look for clues in subtle differences. That sometimes helps. And sure enough, we found you."

"We're sorry," Madie said sympathetically. "But we don't know what happened to your dads. You're the first humans we've ever met, so there's no way we could know anything about any others. And we need to get home."

Candie gave a quivering sigh. _Mom's gonna_ love _this one._ She thought.

"We believe you," Clarity said. "But we still think you can help us. If you came from the future you must have some means of time travel at your disposal."

"We do." Mo answered. "We borrowed a time machine from a family friend." Even though Akkoro's secret laboratory was technically a five minute walk away, it felt like it was a galaxy and a half from the coffee shop where they were sitting.

"If we take what we know we can get to the last place our fathers were known to be, but going there gets us no closer to finding them. If we can go to the exact time they were there we can follow them and finally find out what happened." Clarity continued

"You want to use our time machine? We don't feel like it." Candie was still sulking.

"You have questions of your own, do you not?" Clarity stated. "You feel that your existence is a burden on someone you love."

"So what?" Candie felt uncomfortable discussing her plight.

"I can help you. I can show you what the world would have been like if you never existed." Wolfram offered.

"And just how do you plan on doing that?" Candie asked.

"Like I said." The human explained. "I have a gift. I can jump between the different realities brought about by differing choices. Love can be rife with uncertainty. It's very likely there exists a reality where your parents never pursued a relationship in the first place"

Candie brightened up. "And if you find one, you promise to take me there?"

"Candie!" Madie was upset all over again. Now her second cousin really _was_ being selfish.

Wolfram discreetly held a palm at Madie as if to say _relax, I know what I'm doing._

"If I find one – and I'm positive that I can – and you like it, you can stay there. But I'm telling you now: It might not be as perfect as you think. It takes more than one person to make or break a reality." He said.

"We have a deal." Candie said cheerfully and extended a hand, which Wolfram shook.

The party payed for their coffee and stood up to leave. Mo lifted his backpack which contained the time machine. "So when are we headed?"

"Three November, twenty-sixteen." Wolfram answered.

"I know that date," Madie remarked.

"That's right. It's the date the Squid Sisters had their fourth concert in the past," Candie added

"And that's exactly what our dads were doing in Tokyo." Wolfram continued. "No one from our home town knows where they went, or even noticed they were gone. The last anyone ever saw of them they kept going on about how they were going to Japan to see the 'Seafood Sisters'."

" _Squid_ Sisters," Mo corrected, slightly offended.

"We know that," Wolfram explained. "But no-one else back home seemed to care. We think it may be related to why they left. At any rate, why that's interesting is because in this reality, our dads tell us they only went to the third concert in Paris, and even met the Squid Sisters and another Inkling, and an Octoling!"

"The Squid Sisters are our mothers! We've heard this story, too! They were there with two human girls; one had black hair and the other red!"

" _Our_ mothers! Surely it was by some cosmic design that the universe has brought the five of us together!" Clarity exclaimed but somehow maintained her angelic serenity "Something on the timeline they're seemingly missing from must have been different which could have driven them to come all the way to Tokyo."

"That's right", Wolfram continued. "We came to Tokyo looking for a trace and found nothing before we found you three. Our best hope would be to check the last time and place we know for sure they showed up, and that's the Squid Sisters Concert from 2016."

"Hold up." Candie said. "Something doesn't quite make sense. What year did you say this was?"

"2033," Wolfram answered. "Why?"

"You said earlier that you were both fifteen years old."

"That's right," Clarity said.

"So if no one's seen your dads for seventeen years, where did you come from? And how do you even know what they look like?"

"It's like I told you," Wolfram began. "It's not our own fathers from this reality that have gone missing. It's our fathers from a parallel reality. No trace of them, no trace of us, we even checked on our mothers. In that reality they're married to two other men, and they've never heard of our dads or even each other. It's like our dads barely even existed to begin with."

"Shall I set the time machine up here?" Mo asked when they came upon a clearing

"Not quite," Clarity replied. "We need to make the jump first. Everyone join hands."

The inklings joined hands with their human acquaintances, although they did not completely understand why.

"Now just so you all know," Wolfram cautioned, "This is going to feel a bit weird."

To the inklings it felt like Wolfram took a step forward even though he remained in place. It felt like they were being gently pulled by the hand but they couldn't quite tell in which direction. They could have sworn they were suddenly somewhere else, yet everything around them still looked the same.

"What just happened?" Mo asked with the confusion audible in his voice.

"We just jumped." Wolfram answered "This is the reality where our dads are missing. We're ready to go back."

Moments later, the group of five sat in the time machine, each face looking at all the others in turn.

"Just look at us!" Mo said in an air of excitement as the time machine powered up. "We're like a group of heroes in our own right!"

"Like the Squidbeak Splatoon!" Madie exclaimed, her eyes pinched tight with delight.

"No," said Candie, "we're something different altogether! We're… the Gladius Brigade! Now if everyone's seated and strapped in, we're ready to get going." she said as she popped the Thinking Cap onto her head. "Next stop, three November, twenty-sixteen!"


	3. Concerts and Cosplay

There was a knock on Allan's door, even though it was open. Allan Kidman looked up from his handheld gaming device and saw his brother Edward, standing silently with the screen of his smartphone turned toward Allan so that he could see it. The look on Edward's face already told Allan everything he needed to know before the screen even caught his eye.

"They've announced another concert, haven't they?"

Edward nodded.

"When and where?!" Allan demanded

"I haven't seen yet. I didn't even finish reading. I just came straight to you when I saw it."

Allan and Edward wrestled for a view of the cell phone, and eventually settled their faces side by side. Edward held the phone while Allan scrolled and the two of them read the article in chorus:

"… a fourth concert to be held on the third of November 2016… in… Tokyo."

Their faces fell as though it was one person standing next to a mirror, and they walked into the TV room where they each sat down on a couch. They were silent for a while and Allan spoke up.

"Look at us." He said.

"Which part in particular?" Edward moped

"All of this!" Was Allan's answer. "Everything! When was the last time we were as excited about anything as we were not half a minute ago?"

Edward inhaled and opened his mouth to speak, but remained silent as he suddenly realised he didn't know what he was going to say. He was quiet for a moment and then said "Not once remotely. Not since July."

"Exactly!" Allan said heatedly. "We are in dire need for things to change!"

"Do you think… we have a problem?" Edward ventured.

"Oh, we have a problem, alright!" Allan replied. "We have no lives, no family, no real friends to speak of, we hate our jobs… the only thing that keeps us going is our video games, and just a few months ago we learned one of them was real!"

"I think I know where you're going with this…" Edward began to brighten up.

"We get rid of everything…"

"… We give up our lives as we know it…"

"… We go to the Squid Sisters…"

"… And we start new lives!"

The Gladius Brigade's vessel materialized a few blocks away from the concert venue where they could disengage the cloaking mechanism without being seen. Although the saline ink mixture Dr Akkoro had invented protected the inklings' systems from the side effects of the matter conversion quite effectively, it didn't provide quite as much relief to the humans, whose outer surfaces were far less permeable. Wolfram was slouching uncontrollably, unable to stand without steadying himself on someone or something, and Clarity, who normally seemed to almost float instead of walk, now seemed overwhelmingly human and devoid of all poise. She could not speak without punctuating every third or fourth word with a small gagging noise. This went on for a few minutes until the effects wore off.

The five surveyed the location of their mission, a bustling throng swirling with people headed everywhere from everywhere. Here and there were patches of calm with uncrowded doorways, but they were sectioned off with barricading and guarded by event staff.

"In order for us to get around and search the place more easily, we're going to need a few passes. " Wolfram said before disappearing into the crowd. He made his way into a restroom and entered a stall which he locked behind him. Wolfram jumped into a reality where there was no event scheduled for the venue. He found the place deserted and locked on the outside, with himself moving around freely inside. The reality jumper made his way to a spot parallel to where he recalled seeing a "Staff Only" sign barring the way and when he peeked back into the reality in which his father and uncle were missing, sure enough he saw a box on a table containing staff pass lanyards. He swiped a handful of them before returning to the toilet cubicle from whence he'd disappeared and returned to his party with the words "You're welcome!"

The party was making its way around the outer edge of the crowd inside the concert hall, keeping an eye out for two tall figures with brown hair. The show had not yet begun and everywhere conversations were buzzing with anticipation.

"Everyone, stay together." Candie cautioned. "I'm sure we have more than enough time to find these guys but let's not go losing each other in the proc-… where's Madie?"

Candie looked back and scanned the crowds, and spotted Madie's green and grey tentacles. Her disguise had somehow fallen off in the crowd and she was standing with, and talking to…

"Is that another inkling?" Candie yelled in disbelief.

Clarity shut her eyes and the faintest hint of a frown flashed on her forehead for a split second as she focused. "I sense no inking abilities, so that's obviously a human boy in a very convincing costume."

Candie sighed and stomped toward her second cousin, but as more people poured into the hall, the crowd grew denser and moving through it became a tougher challenge by the minute.

"You look great!" The apparent inkling boy called over the hum of thousands of voices.

"Oh my, thank you!" Madie blushed as she misunderstood the compliment and turned around. "Hey, you're… one of us!" She exclaimed when she saw the stranger who had randomly complimented her appearance. Madie realised her costume had fallen off, but she wasn't fazed as there was another of her kind less than two feet away from her.

"I sure am!" He said and raised a Splattershot he was carrying with him for some reason. "I just _love_ Splatoon!"

"How did you get all the way out here?" The real inkling enquired

"I saved up my allowance and did a paper route until I could afford coach!" The boy straightened his hair and made a weird pose with his weapon. "You can call me… Inknatius!"

"Madie." She returned the courtesy. "How come I haven't seen you in the Turf Wars?"

"My mom only lets me online on weekends! So, Team Callie or Team Marie?" Inknatius asked.

"Marie's my mom!" Madie replied.

"I think I know what you mean!" The cosplayer said dreamily. "Like a role model! I'm more of a Callie fan myself!"

"No, I'm really her daughter!" Madie clarified

"Well, I guess you're not a true fan unless your OC has some crazy backstory, right?" Inknatius took Madie by the arm, gently like someone who didn't want to scare off a new acquaintance, but somehow at the same time firmly, like he was afraid she would disappear if he let her out of his sight for one moment "C'mon! I **have** to show my friends your costume! They need to see you! This way…"

"Actually I really have to get…" Madie began

"Don't you worry!" Inknatius interrupted her. "We've still got a couple of minutes before the show starts! Now come on!"

He dragged her through the mass, her protests being swallowed up by the surrounding noise. Not a moment after they emerged in a clearing, Candie caught up to them and tackled Inknatius to the floor.

"Take your paws off my cousin, Bonehead!" she growled at him before turning to Madie. "What do you think you're doing?!"

"I couldn't do anything!" Madie pleaded. "He wouldn't let go!"

"Whoa, what's your problem, Lady?" A dazed Inknatius asked as he looked up at Candie, whose disguise had come off in the impact.

"You don't know how much you could be costing us!" Candie hissed at him. "We're on a mission across time and alternate realities to find…"

"Okay, back up." The American interrupted. "You people take this roleplay thing way too seriously."

"That's it!" Candie's eyes flared up and the next moment Inknatius had a pink-purple squid on his face, wildly flailing its tentacles at his head. Seeing someone shapeshift into a brightly coloured cephalopod did not astound him nearly as much as learning there were true inklings in his midst, and as soon as he got his breath back, Inknatius apologised to Candie and Madie and let them back in.

By the time the brigade was finally reassembled about a quarter of the turnout had already entered the hall. Candie eyed Madie angrily as the rest of the throng slowly funneled its way through the gates.

"I hope you're happy," she hissed at her second cousin. "If you hadn't dallied with your boyfriend over there we would have been inside by now."

"I'm sorry, okay? I was just being polite," she defended.

Where their corridor opened up into the auditorium they were notably high above the stage, and they had a good view of the whole venue.

"What do you see, Clarity?" Asked Wolfram.

His cousin scanned the whole venue from left to right using her gift. "No one with powers matching theirs. Either they're not here, or they don't have their powers in this reality," she answered.

"They have to be here," Wolfram said defiantly. "We'll just have to do this the old fashioned way. Everybody start scanning faces."

"But we don't know what we're looking for," Candie protested.

"Of course," Wolfram said taking out his wallet. He opened it and took out an old photograph of his father and uncle and handed it to the Inklings. "They might look a bit younger than this," he said as they took turns looking at the picture and passing it around.

Scanning a place the size of the Makuhari Messe concert hall was no small feat, and it wasn't until well into the show before the group's efforts finally paid off.

"I see them!" Wolfram called out above the bustle and pointed to the side of the hall. Sure enough, Allan and Edward had made their way to the backstage entrance and were talking to the guard. The guard looked around nervously then leaned toward them and said something close to their ears. They handed him some money and he opened the door, letting them through.

"We need to get down there," Clarity said and they started pushing through the crowd to try and pursue the people they have crossed time and oceans to find.

Understandably the closer they came to the stage the more densely packed the crowd became and the more they pushed back. It wasn't long until the team felt nervous and claustrophobic, or as if they were mere seconds away from being squashed or trampled by the overwhelming crowd. Madie's usual cheery mood fizzled out and she began to tremble.

"Madie, what's wrong? That's the Squid Sisters up there! You should be enjoying yourself!" Somehow the group had happened upon Inknatius. Having paid for a VIP ticket he was allowed access to the auditorium through a door closer to the stage and he was enjoying every moment of it.

Madie could only manage a faint whimper.

"Is the crowd getting too much for you? Looks like this is your first concert. Let me teach you a little trick: If you're nervous and you need some air but you can't get past all the people, just do this." Inknatius clambered onto a pair of concert goers next to him, who lifted him up and passed him to the people behind them, who in turn passed him on further. "It's called crowd surfing!" he called to Madie as he glided effortlessly past her head.

Madie desperately pushed herself up by the shoulders of a nearby Callie fan who kindly obliged her and passed her along in the direction she wanted to go.

"You guys have to try this!" Madie said gleefully as she overtook the entire group in a fraction of a second.

"You heard her!" Wolfram said. "Everybody, climb."

Soon the entire Gladius Brigade was swimming in a sea of glow sticks, and thanks to the boy who called himself Inknatius a nervous situation was quickly diffused and for the first time the team of allies were doing something surprisingly close to having fun.

The Brigade was set down safely in front of the door leading backstage. They flashed their passes and the doorman let them through.

"Not bad, eh?" Madie gloated jokingly. "Looks like my 'boyfriend' actually came in handy."

"If you hadn't had your little 'wardrobe malfunction' none of that would have been necessary." Candie snapped.

"Well if you hadn't pulled your little space-time eraser stunt none of this would have happened." Madie retorted.

"I couldn't pull my little my little 'space-time-eraser stunt' thanks to you. If you just left me alone to get it over with-" Candie began.

"Is that what you want? To be left alone so you can remove yourself from the lives of everyone you love?" Madie ranted.

"YES!" Candie shouted. "That's exactly what I want! I want everyone to leave me alone so I can stop messing up their lives! I don't belong! My own father didn't even want me! My mother is a living calamari steak because of me! She can barely make a plate of food! My mere existence is a curse! I've been ruining lives since before I was born! I'm a weed in the garden of life and I can't even pull myself up!" she started running out of words. "I just… don't want to… be anymore! I wish I never was!" she wailed as she sank to her hands and knees, screaming and sobbing uncontrollably as she folded up faced down on the floor.

Madie felt terrible. Wolfram and Clarity were unsure what to do. They felt somewhat awkward watching the tragic inkling girl shake bitterly as her heart had finally broken open. Mo stooped to his knees and raised Candie's head by her chin so her gaze met his.

"It's all right," he said gently. "Everything will be OK. You'll see. We've come this far, keep your chin up. We're almost there. It's just a little farther."

Candie sniffed and brushed the back of her fist across her nose. She slowly came to her feet, feeling not quite better but strangely cleansed. "We should keep going," she said in a creaky voice and the Gladius Brigade continued down the hallway at an increased pace.

"I think I hear our moms' voices!" Madie said as they pounded down the corridor leading to the various backstage rooms. Sure enough, Callie and Marie were faintly audible as they engaged in some pleasant post-concert banter.

"That's where our dads will be heading. We should follow the sound." Clarity said.

The Squid Sisters' voices were joined by a third, male voice.

"Gramps!" they chorused.

"You girls were great. Are you ready to go?"

The three continued their chatter as they left the concert hall and made their way back to the site where Inkopolis Plaza would one day exist, silently followed by the Kidman twins who in turn were followed by the Gladius Brigade. Once their past-version of Akkoro's time machine was set up and they were inside the Kidmans snuck on board as well. The team arrived just in time to witness all this happening.

"We're about to lose them!" Mo said desperately.

Wolfram took a chance. "Wait!" he called, but this only caused the time pilot cousins to panic and they rushed through the process to jump forward in time as quickly as they could. As a result they failed to notice their stowaways until they arrived in Inkopolis.

"There they go." Candie said hopelessly. "Now what?"

"Now we follow them," Mo said with a grin. "Or have you forgotten that we came here with our own time machine?"

He speedily took the time machine from his backpack and set it up in front of them. Once they were all inside their next plan needed to be clarified.

"So, to what year are we headed this time?" Candie asked. We don't know how far forward they've gone."

"Then why don't we go and ask them?" Wolfram suggested. "Set it for the time you came from originally. We'll seek out your parents and ask them when they came back."

"Good idea," Madie said.

"And if we're lucky," Wolfram added, "you may get your end of the bargain sooner than we thought, Candie."


	4. Answers

"Well, here we are. Present day Inkopolis," Candie said once the time machine came to its equivalent of a standstill.

"Home, but not quite home," Mo added.

"Now let's go find your moms," Wolfram said as they disembarked and surveyed the area around them.

The Inkling children led the way to their home, an apartment in the moderately expensive region of town.

"This is going to be tricky to explain," Madie said as she knocked on the front door.

"Can I help you?" asked the wealthy looking middle-aged Inkling man who answered the door.

"I hope so," Candie replied. "Do the Squid Sisters live here?"

The kindly man gave a brief chuckle. "Your sources are a bit outdated, I'm afraid," He laughed. "They haven't lived here since their single days. You're the first media crew looking for a scoop I've had in a while. Where are your cameras?"

"Single days?" Mo echoed. "So they don't live here?"

"If they did I'd have no choice but to charge them rent." The old Inkling said with a smile. "This place was already pricey just because they used to own it."

"Could you tell us where they _do_ live?" He asked hopefully.

"I'm afraid if common folk like us knew that," the occupant explained, "There'd be no end to the media boots through their doorways. Five famous people under two roofs? Forget about it!"

"Five?" Candie repeated.

"Two?" Madie reiterated.

"That's right," the gentleman continued. "The sisters and all three of their children. You could say fame runs in the family. It's just the dads no one really cares about. Wow, for a media team you hardly do any homework at all!"

"Any ideas on where to find them now?" Wolfram said once they were outside

"There's one other place we can look" Mo answered. "Our great grandfather used to keep watch over Octo Valley. It's a shared duty now so we ought to find _someone_ we know down there."

Just like Mo had said, an Octarian man was sitting at the post surveying the underground landscape.

"Hi uncle Callum!" Madie said as they neared the lone watchman.

"Oh, hello, kids. I almost didn't recognise you. Did you all change your hair?" he said as the travellers came up to him. "Who are these two?"

"It's… a little complicated." Madie answered. "We're not who you think we are. I mean we are, but we're not the us you know from here. We're another set of us from another Inkopolis-" She began to ramble. Callum was not quite following.

"Parallel dimensions." Mo interrupted. "It's a long story but the short version is that we've been doing some reality jumping with the help of our new friend here." He gestured toward Wolfram.

"I'm sure stranger things have happened," Callum remarked, downplaying his astonishment. "How can I help you?"

"We need to find our moms." Candie explained. "Can you tell us where we live in this world?"

"Certainly," Callum said politely and explained in detail where they needed to go to next to continue their mission. Half an hour later they reached what Callum told them was Callie's house.

The door opened revealing an Inkling man in his forties. He froze on the spot when he saw Wolfram and Clarity and greeted the company of five with the word "Humans…"

Wolfram looked the Inkling in the face and his jaw dropped. Although it was the face of an inkling, it was one he would recognise anywhere. _"Dad?"_

A look of panic spread over the inkling man's face. "I can assure you I'm not who you think I am."

"No, I don't mean my _actual_ dad… well… you are… I think… are you Edward Kidman?" It took a lot to astound someone to whom hopping across different realities was a hobby.

The Inkling opened the door. "I think you'd better come in."

"I haven't gone by Edward Kidman in sixteen years," The man said once everyone was seated and helped to their beverage of choice. "Where did you find this kid?" He asked Candie

"He found me," she replied. "It's a long story involving time travel and timeline crossing."

"Yes," Wolfram confirmed. Let me start from the beginning: I have a gift for jumping across timelines." Wolfram did a quick to-and-fro into a reality where his sudden appearance and disappearance wouldn't cause any panic as a demonstration. "I use this gift to check up on myself and my loved ones in various realities and see how they're doing."

"I have loved ones in another reality?" Edward asked in surprise.

"You have a whole family!" Wolfram replied. "You're my father in my reality and this girl…" Clarity waved "… is Allan's daughter. This may come as a shock but where I'm from you, Allan, our mothers… we all have special gifts that we use to protect the world!"

"Superheroes…" Edward mused "How about that. I wouldn't trade it for what I have here, though."

"What do you have?" Wolfram asked and sat forward in his seat. "I'm dying to know what you guys are doing out here!"

"Allan and I were miserable back in the twenty first century," Edward began "Then one day our lives reached a turning point when we won a contest…"

"The Squid Sisters concert!" Clarity knew this story. "You and my dad took our moms with you and stayed behind after the show, where you met the Squid Sisters in person and learned they were not projections but in fact real! You got them to sign three posters you'd brought along!"

"That's right," Edward continued, "but in my reality the two of us came alone: We didn't have anyone to bring with us. So naturally learning Callie and Marie were real awakened a joy in us that we hadn't known since we were little. We gave up our whole lives to make it to their fourth concert and stowed away aboard the vessel that brought them. We haven't looked back since."

"And…?" Wolfram asked expectantly.

"And what?" Edward echoed.

"And this?!" Wolfram asked gesturing to Edward's inkling tentacles.

"Oh, you like them?" Edward smiled. "We arrived in the Mollusc Era as two humans who couldn't understand a word of Inklish. The Squid Sisters took us to their scientist friend who taught us the language in an instant using something called the Thinking Cap."

"We know it." Mo said and pulled the computer-wig out of his backpack.

"So after that we had a long chat with Akkoro, that's his name, explaining who we are, where we came from and why, he then took me and Allan to a lobster guy he worked with, who sequenced our DNA and formulated a special radioactive ink that turned us into Inklings!"

"Did that… hurt?" Madie asked with concern.

"The injections stung like a ray, and the degeneration of our bones was about two and a half hours of unparalleled discomfort, but our determination saw us through it. Plus, we gained a handsome amount for letting them use us as test subjects."

"And that was it?" Wolfram asked. "Two and a half hours and you guys were humanoid squids?"

"Not exactly." Edward continued. "We gained the appearance of inklings in the time it took our bones to dissolve, and our brains mutated into inkling brains overnight, but the rest of our human cells had to die off and be replaced by inkling cells in the next few months before we could truly be inklings. We changed our names to Allan and Edward Squidman, won the hearts of our idols, and the rest is history."

"Wait. Your idols?" Candie said in bewilderment. "You mean the Squid Sisters? Callie and Marie?"

"That's right, Candie. Who else would I be talking about?" Edward answered.

"How did you know my name? I haven't introduced myself." Candie said in more bewilderment.

"What are you talking about, Sweetheart? It's me. Your dad." Edward said sounding a bit confused.

"My what?"

Just then a second Candie walked through the door.

"Daddy!" she said happily, ran up to Edward and hugged him. "Who are these guys?" she asked, looking at the familiar looking strangers on the couch.

"What's going on here?" Edward was astonished.

Wolfram had seen his fair share of this sort of thing and knew exactly.

"Oh, right. This is easy to explain. Dad- I mean, Edward, notice the slightly browner tinge in this Candie's tentacles. _She_ is your daughter. _This_ Candie is a visitor from an alternate reality just like the rest of us." He clarified. Edward's Candie didn't appear to understand completely, but smiled and nodded anyway.

"I never knew my father." Candie said sombrely.

Edward's smile faded for a moment and he turned to his real daughter. "Sweetheart, why don't you go see what Madie and Mo are up to?"

The new Candie gave a confused look at the Madie and Mo seated on the couches across from her.

"Race you to my house!" Madie said playfully, and the local Candie jumped out of her seat and sped out the door.

"I'd like to show you something." Edward Squidman said getting out of his seat. He walked Candie up a short flight of stairs and down a corridor. The walls were packed with framed pictures of the small family of three. In all of the ones that featured Callie she wore the broad smile Candie knew from the old concert videos, and in all of the pictures featuring Candie she wore the same smile.

"Did you see how cheerful and carefree you are in this world?" he asked rhetorically. "Your mother's spirit is joy personified, and you are her daughter in every sense of the word. That same spirit dwells within you."

"It's easy to say if your ride's been smooth all the way." She said bitterly.

"Our ride's been anything but smooth all the way," Edward disagreed.

Candie snorted. The pictures on the wall suggested otherwise. They continued their walk down memory lane in silence.

"I have one question, though," Candie said after a while.

"What's that?" Edward asked.

"In my reality my mom named me on her own. In this one I have two parents, yet I have the same name. Didn't you care what my name ended up being?"

"Very much," Edward defended. "I had all kinds of names in mind. But that stubborn mother of yours, she insisted that your name be Candie. I didn't really have a say. It seems she's wanted you for a very long time."

Edward's last comment took Candie by surprise and she gave a quick gasp that sounded almost like a hiccup. A single tear poked its head out of its duct and slowly rolled down her cheek, dropping from her chin before disappearing as a dark spot on the carpet underfoot.

"Do you really think so?" she said with a quiver.

"I know so with all my heart." Edward said gently.

Candie hugged the man who was her father and yet not her father. "Thank you," she said. "I really needed to hear that."

"You're very welcome, child." Edward answered.

"It really hasn't been easy all the way." Edward continued. Sometimes your mother's work gets so bad it knocks her down hard and I wonder what happened to the woman I married. But that spirit of hers gets right up and back in the fight. Especially now that she has you to fight for. It gets hard, for a fact. But it's moments like these," he gestured toward the photos on the walls of the hallway, "that make it all worthwhile. And these are the moments we'd do well to remember, always. _That's_ who she _truly_ is. And I have no doubt that it's who _you_ are as well."

The team of five was walking back to Inkopolis Square, each silent with their own private thoughts.

"Thank you all for your help." Clarity said after a while.

"Yeah," Wolfram confirmed. "We're more than satisfied with the answers we were able to find and we couldn't have done it without you."

"Oh, you're welcome." Madie said with a grin. "It was quite a fun little adventure."

"Now unless I'm mistaken," Wolfram continued, holding his hand out to Candie, "I believe we had a deal."

Madie's smile disappeared and the siblings looked at Wolfram and Candie in silence.

"No," Candie said after a while. "Just take me home." The group relaxed.

The company of five was back in the place and time they had first met, the pavement still wet from the car that had soaked Candie what seemed like ages ago.

"I guess this is where we go our separate ways," Wolfram said.

Mo felt like an event this significant somehow needed to feel ceremonial. He cleared his throat. "I hereby declare the Gladius Brigade officially disbanded."

"Let's say temporarily for now." Clarity added.

"You think we'll see each other again?" Madie asked hopefully.

"Who knows?" Wolfram said chirpily. "We're from the same reality, after all." The group chuckled bittersweetly.

The two groups of young people who were related and at the same time not related said some teary goodbyes and waved at one another as the time machine's door closed. As soon as the Inklings were strapped in they returned to their own time, but this time it was the right reality.

"I'm sorry about everything," Candie said as Mo was packing up the Time Machine. "And when we get home I'll understand if you don't want to lie for me."

"Lie for you?" Madie repeated. "I hardly think there'll be any need for that. I definitely remember attending a Squid Sisters concert."

The three inklings smiled at one another. Candie realised anew what magnificent friends she had in her second cousins. "We should get going," she said.

Callie opened the door wearing her oven mitts, so when she reciprocated Candie's unexpected hug it was all the softer.

"I love you, mom." She whimpered into Callie's shoulder.

"I love you too, darling." She said, confused about Candie's sudden gesture of daughterly affection but in no mood to question it or complain.

"What's going on here?" Candie asked after about a half minute of motherly embrace.

Callie came back to earth. "Oh, I realised that I haven't been myself lately with work and Octo Valley taking so much out of me. I just felt like showing my appreciation for how strong you've been for both of us." She took a roast from the oven which smelled heavenly. "Look, I made your favourite!"

Candie sat down at the table grinning uncontrollably from ear to ear. The spirit of Callie was alive and kicking in both mother and daughter. Her cousins each took a seat on either side of her and she flashed each of them a loving glance which they could tell meant "I couldn't have done it without either of you".

"So tell me about your day" Callie said as she generously loaded the plate set in front of her daughter

THE END


End file.
